Consumers typically do business with companies in order to obtain a particular good or service. Some companies tout their social or environmental awareness, and some companies even promote that a certain portion of a purchase will be donated to a worthy cause. Certain consumers connect with this type of company messaging such their purchasing decision may be steered toward these companies if the consumers sense an affiliation with, or an appreciation for the company ethic portrayed by its messaging and its philanthropy.
However, while certain consumers experience a certain level of euphoria by doing business with companies that are aligned with certain social and environmental messaging, the benefit tends to be one-sided. When a company utilizes a portion of a consumer's purchase to benefit a third party, the consumer purchase generally does not result in an additional tangible benefit flowing from the company back to the consumer, which might otherwise incentivize the consumer to do business with the same company in the future versus other companies that might have similar social or environmental messaging. From the company perspective, there is also no added incentive to do business with one consumer over another consumer where the primary purpose for the company is to conclude a transaction that will result in a financial benefit to the company.
In order to create brand loyalty and repeat customers, companies have created shopping clubs, where each purchase by a consumer results in the consumer receiving points, or miles for airlines for example, or other forms of pseudo-currency that can be aggregated and redeemed by the consumer at a later date for products or services from the company. This type of system of points or miles or cash back, etc., is also a primary motivator used by credit card companies to lure consumers, for it is rare nowadays to find a credit card that does not convey some type of ancillary benefit to the consumer. This type of system, however, is another example of a benefit that is unilaterally experienced by the consumer. Again, from the company perspective, there is no added incentive to do business with one particular consumer over another consumer where the primary purpose for the company is to conclude a transaction that will result in a financial benefit to the company. The incentive response by the company of redeeming points or miles or other pseudo-currency is simply a cost of creating repeat business, where the benefit of the repeat business to the company outweighs the cost of creating a redemption scheme that is driven primarily by consumer purchasing volume.
With shopping clubs or redemption schemes or other means by companies to attract repeat consumers and create consumer loyalty, what is missing is a pursuit of a common goal that is shared by the consumer and the company and that extends to a beneficiary beyond the relationship of the consumer and company, wherein the relationship between the consumer and the company results in a shared benefit experienced by the consumer, the company and the external beneficiary. In this case, the shared relationship and common purpose incentivizes the mutual collaboration between the consumer and the company for the collective benefit of all parties to the relationship including the external beneficiary. There is a need, therefore, for a relationship network of consumers and companies that generates a mutually beneficial loyalty among the network members and that results in an additional benefit to external beneficiaries that promote social and environment causes selected by network members.